


BEGIN|NING

by writerdragonfly



Series: MIR|RORS [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Relationships, Crossroads Deals & Demons, Demonic Possession, Heaven & Hell, M/M, Pre-Slash, Secrets, demon!John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 06:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9645227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerdragonfly/pseuds/writerdragonfly
Summary: Every good story has a beginning. For the demon Vayu, his was John Sheppard.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LovelessAyase](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelessAyase/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Last Blind Date](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9631034) by [Brumeier](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier). 



> For Westley, my best mate.
> 
> Technically, this was inspired by Brumeier’s The Last Blind Date. However, it has absolutely nothing to do with that (amazing!) fic. I can honestly say I have no idea what sparked this idea from within the fic, but credit where it’s due. 
> 
> Huge thanks to Stars and popkin16 for listening to the fic ramble.
> 
> Those of you who saw my recent post with art for MIR|RORS, this is the same fic! Technically, this is part one of a trilogy of MIR|RORS fics. This is because the second part is continuing to be massively bigger than this first part. The entire trilogy is plotted out, and I hope to have it written and posted within the coming week.
> 
> See the end notes for a brief discussion on the pairings within. (May contain spoilers.)

# 

#  _BEGIN|NING_

## AUG|UST 20|00

**-x-**

 

_The desert is hot, dry, and lonely. He doesn't know how long he's spent there, blood dried on his clothes, his face. He doesn't dare waste the last of his canteen on cleaning up._

 

_He is tired, hungry, thirsty. His gun, one bullet left, is a heavy weight in his arms. The metal burns the tips of his fingers._

 

_John is tired, dirty._

 

_And alone._

 

**-x-**

 

Vayu doesn't actually remember much of his life. He'd been separated from those days a long time, even by Hell’s standards.

 

But he doesn't remember all that much of Hell either.

 

He'd escaped into the Seventies during some attempted Battle Royale with the Campbell's, taking advantage of their distraction to leave the Gate.

 

At first he'd enjoyed the fruits of his labor, wreaking Hell on the men he possessed. It was what he was _supposed_ to do, and it had been too long in Hell to remember a time elsewise.

 

And then he'd come to the man, and it hadn't taken very long in his body for the reality of humanity to truly hit him again.

 

This man was a killer, a murderer who would likely _enjoy_ his time in Hell. Vayu didn't remember a lot about his life, but he could remember that his soul had gone to Hell because there had been someone he loved dearly enough to sell it for. To protect.

 

He didn't remember her name ( _his name_ ) but he knew it was worth all the agony that came after.

 

He led that host to a place he couldn't escape, let him face the punishment he was due on Earth, and then he abandoned him to it.

 

For years after that, he did little else but seek out the demons of humankind and bring them to their destruction.

 

Slowly, Vayu fell in love with the world again though. He met people who reminded him of the Before and who he wouldn't ever wish on the After.

 

It was in the 1990s that he found a place for himself again.

 

It was supposed to be a temporary. They all were. He would move on from host to host, choosing people who were near death to keep alive until they could be reached, as if he was an angel instead of a demon. He never stayed to make sure they lived, left once they were in another’s hands.

 

But then, maybe John was different from the start.

 

**-x-**

 

_It takes three days for John Sheppard to die. Three long days lost and alone._

 

**-x-**

 

Vayu doesn't actually find him in time. His temporary living quarters had been the medic who pronounced him dead, leaving the man in the guise of an unexpected rough cough in the dark desert.

 

He doesn't mean to go to John, except that there is something about the still warm body that calls to him.

 

It takes another two days before John is stable enough for Vayu to leave him.

 

He'd been in comatose humans before. Somehow, John feels different from the start.

 

Vayu knows he should leave. Give John Patrick Sheppard his life back.

 

And he means to, he does.

 

It's just, there's nothing left of the man’s soul in his body but his memories.

 

Vayu had been too late. John had already taken his place in Heaven.

 

Vayu stays, spends his downtime lost in memory that isn't his.

 

Wishing, he thinks, that he had met him sooner.

  


## SEPTE|MBER 20|00 - JU|LY 20|04

 

Time passes. Time passes and Vayu isn't even aware of how dangerous the game he's playing is until it's too late to turn back.

 

People had almost mourned Sheppard and he didn't...

 

Vayu couldn't help but not want them to hurt. There weren't that many of them, but there were enough.

 

John had been more human than anyone else Vayu had known in his years since Hell.

 

**-x-**

 

It's almost disturbingly easy to live John Sheppard’s life. Vayu really doesn't think about that fact until he's staring down at the gravestones of people he _knew_ , liked.

 

And realizing that they would have been the only people to truly miss John. The people who had truly known him.

 

**-x-**

 

Something about General O’Neill makes Vayu unnerved. It isn't that he's afraid of him--because he isn't--but that there's something familiar about him that Vayu can't put together.

 

**-x-**

 

The thing is, after Mitch and Dex die, it’s easy for Vayu to put up walls. No one wants to talk to him so it's easy to hide away. To be the man everyone knew John to be, but more.

 

He doesn't know when, but sometime between meeting Rodney McKay and the expedition start date, he stops thinking of himself as Vayu and starts thinking of himself as John.

  


 

## AUG|UST 20|04 - JU|LY 20|05

  


There’s a part of him that wonders if the other worlds out there are connected to Heaven and Hell as surely as Earth. If there are a thousand different Heavens for a million different planets or if all humans, in death, end up in the same places.

 

It’s curiosity as much as desire that leads John to say yes, to commit himself to traveling to the Pegasus Galaxy. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever find out, but he knows that if there was ever a chance for him to, he has to take it.

 

Going to Atlantis is supposed to be a good thing. Somehow, he thinks he should have known that nothing could be that easy.

 

**-x-**

 

He stumbles through the other side of the Gate into Atlantis, his body screaming with pain. It’s worse than dying, worse than any of the pain his hosts have lived through.

 

He feels like he’s being stripped from the inside out, like his skin is on fire and his blood is boiling and his flesh is being stabbed and...

 

And it reminds him of the long ago, of dying for the first time to the rabid snarling of hellhounds, the thrashing of teeth, and the tearing of claws.

 

And then, suddenly, as quickly as it had come, the feeling is gone.

 

He gasps for air, once, twice.

 

And then he’s fine.

 

No one else seems to notice, except for Rodney McKay, who steadies him with a look and a brief hand on his arm.

 

The moment passes, and they get to work.

 

**-x-**

 

He would be lying if he said he expected the Wraith. Something, maybe, perhaps.  But not what they're faced with.

 

He knows the dark creatures of earth by name and legend, knows the myth of all that walk alongside human and demon and angel alike.

 

The Wraith are like the worst of them, twisted and tangled into one. Vampires who walk the day, hive minds with access to interstellar travel and insatiable thirst, who would feed on anything for sustenance and enjoy it.

 

He has known demons who would run from the Wraith in fear.

 

Vayu... _John_... would not. Cannot.

 

**-x-**

  


There's something fragile about it. Realizing that Rodney McKay is not only the best friend he's ever had, but also the best friend the real John never got to meet.

 

**-x-**

 

So many scrapes they barely miss because he is more than John used to be.

 

He wonders, sometimes, if John would have been as lucky or if he would have found a way to be that way.

 

**-x-**

 

The thing is, he doesn't see it coming. It's just... one day he's fine and the next he feels like someone's smacked him upside the head with a shovel.

 

The feeling he first felt, traveling through the Stargate--like he was being torn apart from John’s body--the feeling he still gets, to a lesser extent every time he goes through it within Pegasus, he feels it other times too.

 

When Rodney is in danger, faced with his own mortality, John feels it the strongest then.

 

As if losing Rodney would be like losing everything John has held on to since the moment he stepped inside this body.

 

As if losing Rodney _would be_ losing everything.

 

And well, maybe it is.

 

**-x-**

 

“They haven't detected my approach. Weapon is armed and ready. I'm goin' in.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is intended as a McShep fic. 
> 
> HOWEVER! Due to the nature of this particular demonic possession, the only John that Rodney actually knows IS the demon within his body. So tagging this was actually kind of a pain in the ass.
> 
> There is, however, no actual romantic relationship occurring within this first fic. The problems, issues, concerns, and questions about what relationship between Vayu!John and Rodney **will be addressed** within the second fic, but feel free to ask any questions in the comments or [via tumblr.](http://writerdragonfly.tumblr.com)
> 
> If you still chose to read this, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
